The Sturm und Drang of the 2016 election has upended much of what we thought we knew. The Republican Party collectively chose as its presidential nominee a longtime Democrat opposed to free trade; the K.G.B., F.B.I., and K.K.K. all found themselves temporarily aligned, and former President George H.W. Bush reportedly voted for a Clinton. And Glenn Beck, a former Fox News host and professional conspiracy theorist, admitted that Barack Obama—who Beck once accused of hating white people and trying to destroy the value of gold—wasn’t such a bad guy, after all.

“I did a lot of freaking out about Barack Obama,” Beck admits in a surprising interview with the New Yorker, published this week. “Obama made me a better man.”

Beck was converted in part by his staunch opposition to Donald Trump, whom Beck is convinced is crazy. “We had this weird, almost Howard Hughes-like conversation,” Beck told The New Yorker’s Nicholas Schmidle, describing a conversation the two had at Mar-a-Lago. “This guy is dangerously unhinged,” he concluded.

The 52-year-old television and radio host has made no secret of his feeling toward Trump over the past year. In December, he contributed an essay to the National Review’s “Against Trump” issue, writing that Trump’s policies are antithetical to true conservatism: “If Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination, there will once again be no opposition to an ever-expanding government.” But it was a speech by Michelle Obama, condemning Trump for his infamous comments about grabbing women “by the p----” that was the come-to-Jesus moment for the deeply religious Mormon.

“Those words hit me where I live,” said Beck. “If you’re a decent human being, those words were dead on.” On his radio show, he called Michelle’s speech “the most effective political speech I have heard since Ronald Reagan.”

“She didn’t say, ‘The government should do X, Y, or Z.’ She said, ‘We,’ ‘Us’—without a political party. ‘We are better.’ ‘We need to stop this,’ ” he added later. “It had to do with ‘Who are you as a human being?’ ‘How do you view women?’ Brilliant speech . . . That was a moment that transcended all political thought.”

Beck, who shocked his fans in September by announcing that he supported the goals of Black Lives Matter, was aware that his former fanbase at TheBlaze, the conservative media and entertainment network Beck launched in 2010, might turn on him. “These people scare the hell out of me,” he admitted. But in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to vote for Trump. “For all the things people have said about me over the years,” said Beck, once a rabid conspiracy theorist known for his spontaneous weeping, “I should be able to spot Dangerously Unhinged.”

Alabama: Judy Carns

“We’ve been in politics for a long time and we keep sending people to Washington to make a difference and we don’t do that much changing. I just said, ‘This guy’s got what we need.’”

Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Alaska: Jerry Ward, 68

Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Arizona: Russ Clark, 57

“We need to unify. It needs to be done regardless of the 17 choices that you had going into the whole thing.”

Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Arkansas: Bob Ballinger, 42

Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

West Virginia: Michael Baisden, 66

“My hat is my hard hat from work. That’s actually coal dust . . . I wore it for about 16 years in a coal mine. Whenever a sticker would get scratched I wouldn’t remove it, I’d just cover it with another. It probably weighs about 10 pounds more than it should but it’s my hard hat. . . . There’s probably a thousand dollars’ worth of stickers on that hat if you go through all the layers. I used to sell heavy equipment in the mining industry. It became [that] there was no return on my investment. I couldn’t make any money because of the downturn in the coal-mining industry, so I’m not doing that anymore.”

Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Wisconsin: Jim Miller, 41

Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Wyoming: Timothy Bendel, 47

Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Alabama: Judy Carns

“We’ve been in politics for a long time and we keep sending people to Washington to make a difference and we don’t do that much changing. I just said, ‘This guy’s got what we need.’”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Alaska: Jerry Ward, 68

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Arizona: Russ Clark, 57

“We need to unify. It needs to be done regardless of the 17 choices that you had going into the whole thing.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Arkansas: Bob Ballinger, 42

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

California: Samantha Schwab, 20

“I’ve always been a Republican. I’m a huge Trump supporter as well. This is the first election where I can actually vote, so my first time at a convention and the first time I’ve really been involved in an election.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Colorado: Justin Everett, 45

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Connecticut: Benjamin Proto, 57

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Delaware: Richard Forsten, 53

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Florida: Gay Hart Gaines

“I’ve been to many conventions but the first time I’ve been a delegate. I wanted so badly to be a delegate. It was on my bucket list.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Georgia: Dale Jackson, 36

“I was in Kentucky when Sen. Rand Paul announced his candidacy and I worked on his campaign.”

So you're still warming up the idea of Donald?

“I’m here for a totally different reason . . .the issue I’m passionate about is medical cannabis oil to treat my autistic son. . . I was up here last week trying to get it in the platform.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Hawaii: Nathan Paikai, 58

How are you liking Cleveland? “Cleveland showed me more aloha than some of my hometown.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Idaho: Jeff Thompson, 52

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Illinois: John Adkins, 51

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Indiana: D Jack Mahuron, 89

“This is my 10th convention.”

How has it compared to others?

“About the same except the security is more important now than it formerly was. We used to be able to come to the convention and walk out the door and go over to the shops and look all over around the city but we can't here.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Iowa: Westhenry Ioerger, 19

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Kansas: Dave Bohnenblust, 57

“I’m a Cruz supporter, but at this point I’m a Trump delegate, by our rules, until he releases me. I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Kentucky: Hal Rogers, 78

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Louisiana: Jeff Giles, 60

“This is just a suit but last night I did a Trump hat. I was the only delegation chairman to wear a Make America Great hat. That was style my friend; that was class.“

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Maine: Donna Hopkins, 65

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Maryland: Ben Marchi, 38

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Massachusetts: Jimmy Davidson, 27

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Michigan: Bill Parfet, 69

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Minnesota: Mary Susan, 52

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Mississippi: Wayne Tisdale, 68

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Missouri: Kendal Spooner, 22

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Montana: Eric Olsen, 64

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Nebraska: Governor Pete Ricketts, 51

“I want a very contested primary myself. I got elected a year and a half ago. There were six of us in my Republican primary and I will tell you it was a hard-fought contest, very competitive. . . It was rough, but the day after that primary every one of my opponents showed up at the unity rally to support me because that’s what you do when you have a nominee. You get on board and you support that person in the general election.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Nevada: Brek Greninger, 73

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

New Hampshire: Jason Osborne, 38

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

New Jersey: Bill Layton, 45

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

New Mexico: Rick Romero, 62

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

New York: Susan McNeil, 60

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

North Carolina: WIlliam Gillis, 31

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

North Dakota: Sandy Boehler

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Ohio: Betty Montgomery, 68

How do you feel personally about Trump?

“The verdict’s still out for me. I’m certainly not going to vote for Hillary Clinton, but Donald Trump is a brand-new candidate at the highest level he can be. . .I have a few months to see how he behaves on the national stage.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Oklahoma: Lori Reeder, 37

“Oklahoma has for many years done their best to be the best-dressed at the convention so they have their own jacket with a patch on it and you have coordinated outfits most days—some of them are optional.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Oregon: Nathan Dahlin, 31

“I’m a Cruz delegate. I’m still waiting to see what happens—try not to be hasty . . . Cruz had a sense of decency and honor and how he treated other people. I felt that he conducted himself with integrity and that he stood up for the issues that were important to me. He fought in the Senate for those seeking jobs no one else in the Senate would fight for.”

Is it hard to be a Cruz delegate here?

“It’s a little hard; there’s not really any Cruz merchandise to buy except what we brought with us. Mostly people are nice.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Pennsylvania: Thomas J. Ellis, 56

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Rhode Island: Gerry Zarrella, 70

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

South Carolina: Gene D'agostino, 66

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

South Dakota: Hal Wick, 71

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Tennessee: Linda D. Buckles, 66

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Texas: Erin Swanson, 31

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Utah: Peter Greathouse, 39

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Vermont: Suzanne Butterfield, 69

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Virginia: Senator Richard Black, 72

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Washington: Jeanne Congdon

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

West Virginia: Michael Baisden, 66

“My hat is my hard hat from work. That’s actually coal dust . . . I wore it for about 16 years in a coal mine. Whenever a sticker would get scratched I wouldn’t remove it, I’d just cover it with another. It probably weighs about 10 pounds more than it should but it’s my hard hat. . . . There’s probably a thousand dollars’ worth of stickers on that hat if you go through all the layers. I used to sell heavy equipment in the mining industry. It became [that] there was no return on my investment. I couldn’t make any money because of the downturn in the coal-mining industry, so I’m not doing that anymore.”